


Insecurities (Side B)

by megamegaturtle



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, F/M, Feels, no love for chat, sads, whoops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-27
Updated: 2016-11-27
Packaged: 2018-09-02 15:35:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8672878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/megamegaturtle/pseuds/megamegaturtle
Summary: A sister piece to kachie's Ladrien drabble called "Insecurities" for Miraculous Remix 2016!
Short one shot on love and who really has it.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kachie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kachie/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Insecurities](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7393519) by [kachie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kachie/pseuds/kachie). 



> So this is my attempt of a Miraculous Remix 2016 assignment! 
> 
> I hope you like it kachie! I kept coming back to this piece over and over again and I thought it would be wonderful to do a parallel piece to what you wrote!

It’s nighttime. It’s always nighttime when Marinette runs into Chat Noir when her head is filled to the brim with thoughts that she can’t shake. Not that she wants to see him. She sees him all the time, but it always throws her off guard when shees him as herself and not as her counterpart.

“Why hello there, Princess,” he greets, his hand thrown in a sparse wave atop a light pole. “Prowling the promenade, I see?”

His smile doesn’t meet his eyes and it makes her pause for a moment before replying. “Just got a lot of _felines_ tonight, you know?”

Chat barks out a laugh before hopping on the river’s guardrail and strolling with ease. “That was a dumb pun.”

Her heart flutters at his laughter unexpectedly, happy that her partner seems at least slightly more to actually smile now. Marinette huffs and leans against the rail as he crouches down. Together they both watch glowing lights of the city flicker upon the water’s surface, the waves creating a hazy orange from the reflection.

She feels just as comfortable with him as if she was wearing red skin. She wonders if he feels the same.

Maybe he does. Or doesn’t. Admittedly, Marinette doesn’t know much about her partner minus that he likes puns and likes to flirt with Ladybug. And yeah--he does like being a superhero. That much is true.

“Chat Noir?”

“Hmm?”

Her fingers coil tightly around the hem of her jacket. She can’t help it, grabbing hold of something when her stomach twists itself into knots she can’t untie. The knots starts circling around her belly button before looping and tangling themselves into a giant ball, pushing up so high it brushes the bottom of her lungs and heart.

“Do you really love Ladybug?”

It’s an innocent question, a moment echoing a conversation she had with Adrien hours before where her fingers smoothed his hair, but she feels cold when she asks it. Because even though she’s happy with _Adrien_ , the boy she’s always loved, she still has to know.

Marinette/Ladybug/She has to know.

Beside her, the feline superhero stiffens, his perch overlooking La Seine only wide enough that he doesn’t tip over completely. She doesn’t miss the way he tries to play it off that it’s a shiver, but it’s not. He jumps off the railing and stands a few feet away from her, rubbing a hand at his neck. He looks more boyish than daredevil and---

(How has she not seen this before?)

“Bugaboo?” he asks with a shaky grin. “That ol’ girl? Why that would be silly! We’re...partners,” he says. “Best friends,” he continues even softer.

Marinette turns to face him completely, burning him with her gaze until his eyes meet hers. She refuses to look away.

“But are you in love with her? Because everyone says that you are but maybe I don’t see it,” she begins. “Maybe I can’t see it because you’re always so silly and funny and when you flirt it seems like an act and--” she rambles.

Her mouth is moving so fast she forgets to breathe. “--maybe she doesn’t know that you love her either because you always joke and--and--”

His words cut through her tangent immediately, his green eyes ignited like a roaring fire.

“I love her. With my whole heart and soul. I love her.”

Marinette feels the warmth of his flames as his eyes harden, her heart constricts with each new uttered phrase. Like that she has to listen, this is important. His words have never been more important.

“She’s my sun, moon, stars--god, she’s practically my fucking universe and--” he pauses, taking a deep breath before looking down. “She’s just--I love her a lot, okay?”

Chat’s shoulders fall and his boot scuffs the ground, his hands flexing at his sides because for once he’s not bouncing around. He’s not laughing or joking or smiling. He’s not brave or confident either, the way his words linger in the air between like lonely chords struck in a reverberating hall.

And Marinette is reminded of when she first became Ladybug and she just met Chat Noir and he--he looked at her like she could do anything. She wasn’t always the one in the lead. In the very beginning, she followed his cues and used his never ending optimism as a source of strength.

Really, if she was to be honest, there wouldn’t be a Ladybug without her Chat Noir. And yes, she knows that’s true, they are equals in every sense of the word...but without him, she would have given her earrings to Alya for sure.

That’s why it doesn’t phase her when she closes the space between them and drags him close to hug him. Her hold is tight and she wriggles her shoulders under his arms until they’re pressed so near that neither can breathe.

“Mari--Marinette?” he stutters, uneasy and sure and his hands hovering above her back.

“Shut up and accept the stupid hug,” she grits and squeezes him tighter.

A beat passes, then two when he then quietly chuckles and settles into her hold. “Hug accepted,” he softly says.

Marinette’s ear is over his heartbeat and the world feels funny as Chat puts more of his weight on her and rests the side of his head atop her own. Her hands smooth the bones in his back as he whispers desperately. “She’s never going to love me, is she?”

And Marinette’s heart starts to crack because honestly _she doesn’t know_. She’s in love with Adrien and Adrien is in love with Ladybug and she’s Ladybug and--

(Well, Adrien isn’t in love with Marinette, but she tries to stay away from thinking about that.)

She just...never thought Chat was serious in his affections for her because Chat doesn’t take much too seriously. Except protecting her. Time and time again.

_Oh_.

She feels him take a deep breath and the strands of her hair feel warmer as he shudders.

She holds him closer and replies with what she knows.

“I can’t say for sure, Chat. Ladybug’s pretty stupid for not noticing you.”

He gives a watery laugh. “I’m stupid for being so hopelessly in love with her,” he sighs.

When he pulls back he wipes the corner of his eye with the palm of his glove. “Can I tell you a secret, Marinette?”

She beams up at him because--well, she loves him. “Of course.”

“I--” he hesitates. “When I’m not...in my supersuit...I see Ladybug a lot. And we...kinda are dating?”

_You know he’s in love with you, right?_

_What if we weren’t together-pretend I don’t exist-and you knew he loved you...how would that make you feel?_

A claw scratches his cheek. “She just...doesn’t know it’s me though…and--I just...love her and I want to always be with her….”

_Why would I ever want him when I have_ you?

Big blue eyes look up at green ones and Marinette’s heart thunders because she’s noticing the way his nose slopes and the color of his hair. And how tall he is and when she held him how her arms went around just so and--

“I do now, Adrien,” she says and he freezes. “I do now.”  


End file.
